Overview

Great wheelchair accessible hotel near the city centre of Glasgow.

Transport & Parking

There are over 5 disabled parking spaces round the back of the hotel in the hotel car park as well as many more non-disabled spaces in close proximity. You pay £6 for the car park per day of you staying at the hotel. The taxi rank for the hotel is right at the front door with plenty of space to have room to unload luggage. An 8 minute walk from the hotel is the Exhibition Centre railway station where you can get a train to Glasgow Central Station, or it is a 14 minute drive from the hotel to Glasgow Central Station if you want to get a taxi. I’m not sure about bus connections to the hotel, I didn’t see any bus stops or bus stations nearby.

Access

The back entrance from the car park is level access with automatic doors, however it is quite a distance to walk from the car park to the main area of the hotel. Therefore, some people may want to get dropped off at the main entrance. The door at the main entrance is a swivel door however, there is an automatic door to the side of it that is operated by a push pad. There is no lower down area at the reception desk for customers that are in wheelchairs, so if someone needs to sign something then there is nowhere to lean. However, a staff member provided a clipboard for me to lean on when I needed. I have the advantage of me wheelchair being able to rise, but before I did this I did find it a little intimidating because the desk was quite high. There were 3 lifts to take you up to the hotel room, one was very narrow though so if you have luggage you’re better taking one of the bigger lifts. We were on the 14th floor which isn’t the best floor for an accessible room to be on but, the view out the window was good. The restaurant in the hotel is very accessible, there are tables that are up a few steps but there is also a ramp to get up for people who struggle with stairs. Tables are available at level access too which is where we were seated however, there are some booths that wheelchair user may struggle at. Basically, there are plenty of accessible tables in the restaurant and the food is delicious. The bedroom is the big positive that makes the Crown Plaza very accessible and that’s because of the tracking hoist. The hoist goes from one side of the double bed to the other, it needs to be pulled along the track by someone and the remote operates the up and down feature. The bed is at a perfect height for someone to transfer themselves from chair to bed, but it is a little low for a carer to assist someone, although it was manageable. The accessible room itself was very spacious and there were plenty of plug sockets at the side of the bed, this meant my overnight machines were able to be placed neatly beside me. The desk was at a perfect height and I was able to easily get on with work on my laptop that I had to do. The accessible hotel room has an adjoining carers room which is free of charge however, the door is narrower than the entrance to the accessible room. You may not want to go in the carers room but if you needed to it may be a struggle.

Toilets

I didn’t have a look at the public toilet within the hotel, so I cannot comment on it. The toilet in the accessible room was quite narrow however, I was very surprised there was a tracking hoist in it. Although you have to dismount the hoist machine from the tracking in the bedroom and connect it to the tracking in the bathroom. The tracking hoist goes right over the toilet and provides easy transfer from wheelchair to toilet and back. There was just enough space for myself and my helper along with my wheelchair but if someone had a bigger wheel I feel they may struggle. Photo below to roughly see the size of the bathroom. The sink in the bathroom is not height adjustable and too small to reach into however, the main problem is transferring into the shower. If you do not need the use of the hoist to transfer on to the shower chair then there shouldn’t be a problem because there is plenty of space, but the hoist doesn’t reach into the shower to transfer. The tracking hoist goes diagonally across the bathroom which means it is nowhere near the shower as the tracking hoist goes to the left of the bathroom and the shower is at the right. See photo below for a better idea.

Staff

All staff that I encountered during my stay were very nice and always spoke to me instead of my helper which is a big positive in my eyes. When we checked into the hotel the steward helped us with our bags to the room and explained the fire safety procedures and asked if we needed any help with the hoist. The waiters in the restaurant were also very nice.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone that has to use a hoist to transfer like myself. There aren’t many hotel rooms out there that provide this equipment or are built for it. Although it would be difficult for somebody to transfer to the shower, so this needs to be looked at, but having the brilliant tracking hoist in the bedroom is a great. It takes away the stress of having to hire equipment and check that it fits in the room. This hotel will be my go to place to stay if I’m visiting Glasgow overnight, in fact I’m staying again in November.

Photos